Letter-file.



un. 644,345, Pafenfed'reb. 27, |900. C. H. WILEY.

LETTER FILE.

'Application filed Feb. l, 189D.;

:No Model.)

' l Elli rrED STATES CLARENCE Il. VILEY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

LETTER-FILE.

SPECIFICATION forming" part Of Letters Patent N O. 644,345, datedFebruary 27, 1900.

' Application filed February 1, 1899. Serial No. 704,118. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, CLARENCE H. WILEY, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State ofConnecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inLetter- Files,of which the followin gis a full,clear, and exactdescription, whereby any one skilled in the art can Vmake and use thesame.

My invention relates to the class of devices adapted to removably holdletters, invoices, and the like in a safe and compact shape convenientlyarranged for access.

To this end myinvention consists in the device as a whole, in thecombination of parts, and in the details and their combination, ashereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure lis a plan view of the tile, showingthe covers open.

Fig. 2 is an edge view of the opened file. Fig. f

3 is a plan view, on an enlarged scale, showing the interior of the backpiece. Fig. 4 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, on the planedenoted by the dotted lines in Fig. 3, and showing the back closed. Fig.5 is a sectional view, on the same plane as in Fig. 4, showing the backopened back.

In the accompanying drawings the letter c denotes the back piece of thefile, and b the covers united to the edges of the back piece, as bymeans of hinges c c.l The back piece is preferably of metal, or of amaterial sufficiently rigid to preserve the curved shape, and it is madein two sections a a2, that are hinged together along the center line.The covers are preferably made of binders board, pasteboard, or otherconvenient material, the whole being covered with canvas or stout clothto provide the proper strength and wearing qualities. v

At a suitable point, preferably at one or both ends, the back pieces areprovided with iianges which have means for locking the two sectionstogether in a closed position. A convenient form of locking meansconsists of a hook d on the one part engaging a springlatch cl2 on theopposite part of the iiange. When the two sections c' c2 are thus lockedtogether, the binder-hooks are held with their ends overlapping, so asto prevent the accidental removal of any paper from the flle.

The back c, composed of sections a a2, as stated, is preferably dividedinto such sections along its central line where the hinges that attachthe two sections together are located, and along this same line arehinged two sets of binder-hooks. These hooks e f consist, preferably, ofcurved pieces of wire attached at the inner end, as by means of apivot,to a hinge member attached to one of the sections, these hooksbeing arranged preferably in pairs united to bars g g', so that bothswing together in their movement on their pivots. Each pairof suchbinder-hooks are united by a base g or g and are pivoted to a hingemember on the back piece in such manner that the hooks are offset andoverlap when the binder as a whole is in a closedor in an open position,provided, in the latter case, that the sections of the back are notopened and carried back beyond the normal open position of a book.

. Itis possible, and intended,that the sections a' a2 of the back may beopened, by a swinging movement on the pivots, along its centery line,far enough back, as illustrated in Fig. 5

of the drawings, to leave an open space between the ends of thebinder-hook. Itis while the hooks are in this latter position that apaper-as a letter, invoice, or the likethrough which holes have beenmade in the proper relation to be attached to the hooks, may besecured.v The bar g on the pair of hooks e preferably forms a stop forthe end of the hooks f, and in like manner the bar g forms a stop forthe ends of the hooks of the pair e, when either pair is swung over onits pivot far enough to allow'the ends of the hooks and the bars toencounter each other.

It is a feature of myimprovement to pivot the binder-hooks to the backpiece at or near its central line and to give them a free swingingmovement independently of the cover, as by this means the hold of thehooks upon the mass of letters tiled in the device is independent of anyparticular position, with respect to the back, which the cover mayoccupy. This vis a distinct advantage both in filing letters andremoving from the tile any particular letter which it may be desired toremove.

The binder-hooks may be of any desired number, although the arrangementshown herein is the one preferred, and they may be IOO pivoted to theback piece in any desired position, so long as they are practicallyindependent of the movement or position of the covers, but the specialform and location of the hooks and their pivots is the preferred form.

In a letter-file constructed in accordance with my invention it is to benoted that the hooks are located on opposite sides of the pivot, thoseon one side Working in opposition to those on the other side, but thatthe hooks on one side are independent of those on the opposite side-thatis, each hook performs its function Without regard to another. By thisconstruction I avoid many of the objections present in prior devices,Where one hook acts in connection with another, the one entering asocket in the other. In the use of such a device it is dificult to passthe member containing the socket through a mass of leaves for the reasonthat the end of the socket member catches on the edge of the holethrough a sheet tearing out the edge, and in a case where part of themass is located on the socket member and part of the mass on the othermember there is uncertainty as to the parts properly engaging.

I claim as my inventionl. In combination in a letter-file, a back pieceformed in sections connected by a hinge, binder-hooks hinged to the backpiece on the line of the connecting-hinge, covers hinged to the outeredge of the respective sections of the back piece, and means for lockingthe sections of the back piece in a closed position.

2. In combination in a letter-file, a back piece formed in sectionsconnected bya hinge, binder-hooks hinged to the back piece on the lineof the connecting hinge, and covers hinged to the outer edge of therespective scctions of the back piece.

3. In combination in a letter-file, a back piece formed in sectionsconnected bya hinge, binder-hooks hinged to the back piece on the lineof the connecting-hinge and projecting crosswise of the back in oppositedirections, and covers hinged to the outer edge of the respectivesections of the back piece.

4. In combination in a letter-file, a back piece formed in sectionspivotally connected, covers hinged to the outer edge of the respectivesections of the back piece, binder-hooks pivoted on the line ofconnection of the seci tions of the back piece and project-ing cross-Wise of the back in opposite directions and having a cross-barconnecting each pair of hooks.

5. In combination in a letter-file, a back piece formed in sectionspivotally connected, covers hinged to the outer edge of the respectivesections of the back piece, binder-hooks pivoied on the line ofconnection of the sec tions of the back piece and projecting cross- Wiseof the back in opposite directions and having a cross-bar connectingeach pair of hooks and means for holding the sections of the backpiece-in a closed position.

CLARENCE H. WILEY.

XVitnesses:

ARTHUR B. JENKINS, ERMA P. CoFFIN.

